First results released after the Afghan presidential elections show that with about 500,000 votes in 26 provinces counted former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah is slightly ahead in a tight race with finance ex-minister Ashraf Ghani.

Abdullah is leading with 41.9 percent, which is 4.3 percent more
than Western-leaning academic Ghani (37.6 percent) has so far,
the Independent Election Commission said. This is after just a
small part of some seven million votes cast in total across
Afghanistan's 34 provinces have been counted.

Zalmai Rassoul, also a former foreign minister and a third
candidate, running with the backing of two of President Hamid
Karzai's brothers, trailed far behind with 9.8 percent.

The results will now emerge every day, and some ballot boxes have
yet to arrive in Kabul from remote places travelling by donkey.
Full preliminary results are expected by 24 April. If none of the
candidates gets over 50 percent of valid ballots, a runoff will
take place on May 28.

If this becomes the case, vote counting is likely spill into the
end of June, when the holy month of Ramadan begins.

“We hope that the courting will proceed coherently and that
there will be an announcement soon,” Ashraf Ghani told RT
Arabic.

Afghan presidential elections took place on April, 5, despite
Taliban threats to disrupt the vote “at any cost.” Due
to an unexpectedly high turnout polling was extended by over an
hour. A total of 12 million Afghan citizens were eligible to
vote. With over seven million voting the turnout was roughly 58
percent.

From the beginning Abdullah and Ghani were believed to have the
best chance of winning the election.

In 2009 election, Abdullah Abdullah, who served in Burhanuddin
Rabbani’s pre-Taliban government, finished second withdrawing
after a run-off with Karzai. Abdullah served five years (since
2001 till 2006) as foreign minister in the transitional
government.

His main rival, Ashraf Ghani finance minister in Karzai’s
transitional government and later became head of the national
security transition commission. In his campaign he especially
stressed the need for infrastructure projects.

“We need to do the infrastructure and enhance the process of
making sure that the legal structure in in place,” he told
RT Arabic.

In total there are eight candidates competing for the presidency
to replace Hamid Karzai after 13 years of rule.

On the day of the elections the Independent Elections Complaints
Commission registered over 3,000 violations, which Karzai vowed
to investigate before he steps down.

The election results will be closely followed by Washington,
which failed to seal a security pact with Karzai in the months
running up to the election.

The proposed US deal would allow a number of American troops to
stay behind in Afghanistan following December’s scheduled pullout
to help with the security effort. Karzai has slammed the
agreement and condemned it as indicative of an American policy of
interference, while frontrunners Abdullah and Ghani have both
pledged to sign the pact.

“Upon signing of the bilateral security agreement Afghans
alone will be making decisions on use of force. We need our
national security forces,” Ghani told RT Arabic.